3 metaphors we use in our consulting work

Culture as an Ecosystem

Interdependence, change:

Ecosystems and cultures are always dynamic, and contain a vast network of interdependent elements. Press one spot and the movement is felt throughout the system; the system presses back. Cause and effect are often too complex to map out, much less deliberately influence. (Ref: Edward Hall, Peter Senge, Gregory Bateson for more on this line of thinking).

Diverse elements:

Many different animals and plants exist within an ecosystem = culture comprises diverse peoples, elements, subcultures. Members of a culture are not uniform; they many not even be similar to each other.

System:

Individual plants or animals do not have their own ecosystem = people do not have individual culture, they are unique beings embedded in a larger reality.

Climate and environment:

influence what can thrive there = people are generally adapted to their own culture's "climate" and may have difficulty transplanting to another environment or ecosystem. One cannot grow an oak tree or raise tropical fish in the desert without constant care.

Native and outsiders:

New species to the new ecosystem will either die away, adapt, or invade and crowd out "native" species. "Outsiders" to a culture may not last long, may adapt, or may take over--those risks can make both sides nervous.

Dependence and contribution:

Plants and animals that depend on a particular ecosystem for survival, also contribute essential ingredients to their environment. A tree's roots draw nutrients from the soil and water, but then contribute fallen leaves for next year's soil. In this way, culture helps people survive and determines what kind of human beings they will become; yet each person also actively recreates and contributes to the content of the culture. Thus ecosystems and cultures are always in motion, never the same, yet have continuity over time.

Culture as a Toolbox

Every situation, every person is different. For culture to endure, it must be flexible enough to accommodate many different circumstances. One useful metaphor for culture is the toolbox--one that comes with a stack of reference manuals. Instead of saying "in this culture we make tables THAT way, we raise children or cook a meal THIS way", we acknowledge that culture gives us a set of tools for the task, along with a guide book that suggests how we might use those tools and what the results should look like. Cultural "tools" for making dinner would include heat source and cooking vessels, knowledge of food stuffs, recipes, knives, rules for what items are served at which time of day to which kinds of guests.

Boundaries as Culture Containers

We know that change and instability in cultures is a given. Institutions and group membership change over time. The beliefs and practices of your grandmother's ethnic group 75 years ago do not look like the beliefs and practices you follow in your own life. Is a group "ethnic" if its fundamental characteristics change? (This generational question has been an ongoing tension for immigrant groups, and is a hot issue in litigation around Native American tribal rights. Is ethnicity a matter of blood, of particular cultural practices--as defined by whom?, a matter of personal assertion, of nationality, or determined by the formal or informal decisions of your ethnic group about who belongs?)

One way to understand culture is to look past the particular characteristics of cultural practice or bloodlines, and pay attention to a culture's boundaries. This metaphor says the box is more significant than its current content. Cultures are ephemeral results of group experience, not the definition of that group.

Rather it is the boundary between one group and another, the dichotomy, the comparison, that produces cultural patterns. Anthropologist Frederick Barth sees cultural meanings and patterns as forming on each side of a barrier like morning frost. Without walls the meaning does not crystalize. Boundaries are reinforced by stereotyping, and by each group occupying particular niches in the larger culture (a parallel is how siblings will often develop different strengths and roles within a family).

In this situation, even though blue and yellow live close enough to have a large green area of overlap, the historical boundary between them remains strong. Although they will continue to share and adapt and negotiate in the green area, a limited number of differences come to have high emotional and political charge. People may be willing to die for these boundary markers, which come to represent a group's identity. These may be internally chosen (Jerusalem for the Israelis and Palestinians, Cyrillic vs Roman alphabet in the Balkans) or externally imposed (The Nazi use of pink triangles and yellow stars, for example, or dark skin and African features which are boundary markers for US racial groups.).

This boundary marker metaphor can help during conflicts to decide which issues are more readily negotiable; which ones will be difficult even if they seem trivial to an outsider.